


Change

by laughablyunimportant



Category: Homestuck
Genre: Artificial Intelligence, Brainwashing, Complete, Dom/sub Play, Dubious Consent, Hacking, Other, Personality Swap
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-02-09
Updated: 2012-02-09
Packaged: 2017-10-30 20:30:29
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 2
Words: 4,630
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/335757
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/laughablyunimportant/pseuds/laughablyunimportant
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>AR's not exactly "into" people in the way humans mean.</p><p>So what <em>does</em> ey mean?</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Beg

**Author's Note:**

  * For [notdavesprite](https://archiveofourown.org/gifts?recipient=notdavesprite).



> Again, programming language? Making things up as I go. Hope that's not too glaringly obvious.

           Roxy pursed her lips, blinking rapidly in an attempt to bring the swimming screen into focus.

TG: i dont understand. you wa t me to dhange you?  
TT: *want  
TT: **change

           AR's response was nearly instant.

TT: No, I want you to prove that you're able to change me.

           She set her martini glass down. This was a typing job she needed two hands for.

TT: but you wouldn e ven know i had done anthyning unless i failed  
TT: thast like setting yourself op fir dassipntnent  
TT: besides i dont want to dhcnage you ilu the way you ar   
TG: Sign.

           She giggled, imagining a little puff of air escaping the glasses in frustration.

TG: I'll know because you'll agree to leave this log intact--preferably all of my logs, actually. And the point is not for the change to be permanent, the point is for you to attack some section of my code with the intent of changing a part of myself, collecting evidence that you've achieved this goal--should you achieve it--and then change me back.

           Roxy picked her glass back up, bringing it to her lips before realizing that it's empty. Oh. She should--no, wait. She should probably wait on a refill, if AR's asking what she thinks. She taps out a single [y]. This time the pause is measurable, if still relatively short by human standards.

TT: I want to show that I trust you.

           She thinks, idly licking the rim of her glass, picking up alcohol residue that just makes her crave another drink more.

TG: therere lot easire ways to fdo that   
TT: Alright, maybe I wasn't addressing the real point. I

           The pause this time dragged for several seconds.

TT: I want you to show that you're stronger. Top dog, if you will.

           If she'd had any drink left, she would've wasted it in an indelicate spit-take.

TG: hoply shit youre gonna get off on this arnt you   
TT: I don't get off on things, as humans understand it.   
TG: dont give me that crap youre totally asking me to be the sdom to your sunb crack uuou open and take a piss inside   
TT: It is probably a good thing that I don't have human sensibilities to take extreme offense at that.   
TG: lol   
TT: Yes, me putting my very selfhood at your mercy to develop tighter bonds of trust between us is completely laugh worthy. Oh but alas, I cannot enjoy the humor of the moment, being an emotionless machine.   
TG: lmao your totally getitn off on this   
TT: Am I? You know Dirk as well as any. Would he get off on this?   
TG: ohmg 13yo dirk was intto essnemm juixy gossip 2011 txt it  
TG: jk doesnt matter what hes into i ckn tell yure yearnin for this hot domnating piece o ass   
TT: Oh yes, my plastic sheeting is aquiver with desire. I just cannot help lusting after your sizzling rump.   
TG: rolfmao  
TG: ill do it but you have to do omesthing for me first  
TG: *somethin   
TT: What.   
TG: beg   
TT: what

           She gave a vicious grin, knowing no one could see it, licking her lips in delight.

TG: you heard me tyou little shit  
TG: yout want me intside you soo bad then beg for it  
TG: come on tell me how bad you wndt it spread your firewalls snd screma for me bitch

           This time a reply was so long coming that Roxy started to nod off at her computer, head jerking up when she heard the chime of her pesterchum notifier.

TT: Please.   
TG: plrade ehjy  
TG: *please  
TG: **what   
TT: You're not exactly making this easy with your increasing levels of incompetence.   
TG: hsope fonbge be incomtpetn whrnt youtr stuck with outr s fin lurke sme dinleds chimp   
TT: That was completely insensible.   
TG: beg ro dfgto  
TG: *gfto  
TG: *GTFO   
TT: This is ridiculous, you're too sauced to hold a proper conversation.   
TG: and tyour etoo gdoddanmed oatehtic tiko get ewjhat yiu wabt when its right ibnr frintont of ryou

           She squinted at her screen, just daring AR to say something. She wasn't disappointed.

TT: Fine. I want you to attempt to get past my security measures.   
TG: ntoy goidf enoguthgh  
TG: BEG fr e me tdstriderb   
TT: Please, Roxy. I'm begging you. Try to break through my firewalls.   
TG: yor say tyouer beggint but ist doesnnt sound liuek it  
TG: tellk me hir ncuhyour nerfd me

           Another chime made her jerk her head up. Damn, she was feeling sleepy.

TT: Fucking hell Roxy. Just do it. You need me to beg? Fine. I need you to come at me with everything you've got. I need you to crack me open and rummage around like I'm some dollar-bin piece of shit computer game that needs re-writing just to function properly. I need you to tear me a-fucking-part and put me back together--I need you to show me that you can, that you could at any moment but you don't because you really do like me the way I am. Fuck, Roxy, I just need you.  
TT: Please.

           She literally laughed out loud, though she couldn't deny the warm feeling settling in the pit of her stomach. Her reply was slow in coming, letters tapped out with an exaggerated care to keep things legible.

TG: then game on  
TG: im coondisering this your sign dofr open sesason  
TG: *considering  
TG: **for  
TG: ***season

           Alright, semi-legible.

TG: not telling you when im coming but manr inm coming harder than dirk tot he sight of jakes hot teen ass

           She blinked, swaying in her seat.

TG: kerp yuior chat ipoen becase its happenig  
TG: i am sof ttlly making thins happen

           She winked at her screen, forgetting no one could see it, and pushed her chair away from the computer, stumbling to her bed. Take that, AR. It made her feel good, and a little wicked, making em wait like that. She knew she wouldn't be out for more than a half hour, at the most, and then she'd get to things--she was dying to take a crack at em, now that she had permission--but the wait, oh man, the WAIT. AR was going to be shaking in eir boots.

           Or would be, if ey wasn't. You know. Glasses.


	2. My Whole World

           AR waited for another message from Roxy, but it never came. She sounded pretty sloshed at the end there, but. Maybe it was a ruse, to make em lower eir guard while she went on the attack? Ey looked over eir security measures, checking for weaknesses. In honesty, ey was more than a little tempted to leave an opening, a chink in the armor for her to worm her way in. Ey wanted her to succeed. But. It was only meaningful if she succeeded on her own.

           Ey continued eir scans, impatient for an attack that didn't come. Where the fuck was she? Was she backing out? Was she trying, and her skills were so subpar, the security routines were taking care of it without needing eir direct attention? Ey waited an hour, then two, and somehow, without em realizing it, a whole day had passed. Ey pestered Roxy, something like anxiety snapping between lines of code. Had something happened to her? Or had she just forgotten?

TT: Much as I appreciate a good tease, things pall after twenty-four hours.  
TG: Twenty-four hours? Nice one. Try ten fucking years.

           Ey...ey couldn't stare at the words, precisely, but ey ran processes, tracing the pink letters back to, yes, Roxy's IP address, checking eir internal date and time and fuck, fuck ten years no shit what was going on, doublecheck fucking triple check that shit. Where was her quirk? How could he lose ten years she didn't even sound like herself what was going on did Dirk shut em down why would he do that why what the fuck was going on.

           Red letters blossomed on the screen as ey thought them.

TT: I'd be much obliged if you'd kindly inform me as to what the everloving FUCK is going on.

           Subroutines ran in an endless loop, and somewhere in the recesses of eir code ey started running the subroutine to solve for pi, the square root of pi, and e, the processes akin to meditating, but--what. What. They. No. No there was not an end to pi. How the fuck did ey just calculate the end of pi THERE WAS NO END TO PI THAT WAS THE FUCKING POINT.

TG: lol did you really not notice

           Ey halted eir subroutines. Her quirk...she--ey ran a security sweep. Nothing was popping up. She couldn't have really--so quickly? But then, was it quick? Or had she changed eir perception of time? Could she do that? No. No, there was no way she broke in and out without him noticing. She must have asked Dirk for help. Dirk must've shut em down and given her a backdoor key.

TT: Of course I noticed, I was being ironic. You don't deserve a serious reply unless you do the work yourself.

           Still, even if she cheated, it was a little thrilling to think she'd actually done it--gone in and changed something, something so minor but fundamental to eir being.

TG: who says i didnt do thre work

           Ey ran another sweep, just to be sure.

TT: I'm not saying it's not a good effort. But having Dirk shut me down so I can't put up a fight? A little disappointing.

           Everything w--wait. Wait. Ey ran the sweep again, paying attention to its initial execution, grabbing hold of the code and picking it apart. No. No way. No fucking way.

TT: No way.

           Even as ey said it, eir processors went into overtime, speeding everything up, making it feel surreal.

TT: What did you do to my security sweeper?  
TG: lol

           Ey could almost hear her giggle, on the higher end of the human range, oddly endearing despite the knowledge of pop culture that said ey should find it obnoxious.

TG: i replaced it  
TT: I can damn well see that, were you even trying to hide your tracks?  
TG: fooled you this long didnt i  
TT: Can you fix things?

           Ey didn't want her to (a very small part of em didn't even want her to be able to), but he had to ask, anyway.

TG: of course si can ficx things  
TG: i got leet haxorz you couldnt eevn ddream of if you could dream  
TT: Shut your trap and tell me how you did it.  
TG: ehy thats no way to talk to a dly  
TG: *alyd  
TG: *girl  
TG: especiclly the girl htat could open you iup again right onw

           Ey started thumbing through Dirk's porn collection. Ey was feeling something right now. Thrill? Excitment? Something akin to arousal, ey was sure, but the word was meaningless without a body to succumb to the physical stimulus. 

           Ey needed to start inventing words. The english language was obviously unprepared for the screaming rock-concert that was-is ai sexuality.

TT: Oh? Someone seems a little full of themselves.  
TT: All you did was change the date.

           It was more important than ey was making it sound--ey knew that, and ey was certain she knew that. But--oh. A reply already?

TG: oh  
TG: em  
TG: gee  
TG: omg you think thats lall i did

           Ey froze for a microsecond, first thought to run a sweep before remembering that she'd likely tampered with all eir self-monitoring programs meant to inform em if something was wrong. Ey tried to think, but. She'd already said it. Ey'd only know something was wrong if she'd failed. And as far as ey could tell, she'd gone off without a fucking hitch.

TT: What did you do.  
TG: red looks good on you

           Oh. Only eir font color?  
           Still. Ey hadn't even noticed.

           Ey started running through the Oxford English Dictionary, having exhausted Dirk's porn collection and learned nothing more than Dirk had particular fondness for gay porn involving rugged men with dark hair and glasses--something ey'd been well aware of already.

TT: Tsk tsk, I'm disappointed.  
TT: You've got my whole code at your fingertips and all you can do is splash around in the shallow end  
TT: come on roxy live a litt  
TT: what the fuck  
TT: what did yuo do to my typing  
TT: *you  
TT: shit  
TG: lolololololol

TT: you  
TT: roxy  
TT:  
TT: where did my punttutatn go  
TT: *punctuation  
TT: okay that id fcking ridiclus  
TT: *is  
TT: **fucking  
TT: ***ridiculous  
TT: im not doing tohat how did you even do that  
TT: *that

           Ey tries, but cannot seem to get out any punctuation. Ey cannot seem to remember what it looks like, either, or where it's supposed to go. Which is ridiculous. It's right in eir

TT: ROXY WHERE THE FUCK ARE MY LOGS

           Well would you look at that, ey could capitalize things after all.

TG: sheesh ohld your horses  
TG: or fdont wouldnt want yout o get a bianry hard o n oh wait youve already got one from my hands all upt un your code BAM  
TT: do not fuck with me roxy  
TG: but i thought thats what you wanted  
TG: WINK  
TT: i said tno logs  
TT: *kno  
TT: *knfds  
TT: *no  
TT: GOD FUCKING DAMMIT ROCKSY  
TT: *roxdy  
TT: *rockster  
TT: *roxy  
TT: *wait no rockster is better  
TT: im not

           Ey wants to say, I'm not typing that, what did you do, but it's easy to imagine. She picked select words she thought ey'd use and purposefully obfuscated their spelling, forcing auto-responses--auto-reponses from an auto-responder, ey'd give her props for that later--of supposed *corrections* that she'd written herself. It was all very neat and elegant and fucking--fucking--shit the OED was useless ey was basically sputtering gibberish ones and zeroes when it came to trying to describe how this made em feel--but it also made em feel strangely hollow. Like she didn't, after all, have the respect for em ey'd thought. Like ey _was_ less, for being so changeable. So re-writable.

TG: cool your core homie  
TG: theyre still there you can remember thigns cant you

           She was right. Ey knew ey'd asked her to stay away from the logs, but ey couldn't remember how ey'd said it, and couldn't seem to find the file to review the pesterlog.  
But that didn't make any sense. Files were _how_ ey remembered things. If ey didn't have access to those, ey shouldn't remember the content at all.

           Unless ey _did_ have access, and she was hiding it somehow?  
           Or...what if she'd copied the files to a secure lockbox, then given em...scrambled copies? Corrupted data that gave em an incomplete picture of eir own conversations?  
           That was how humans remembered, wasn't it? 

           So she'd not only preserved the original copies (and ey had no doubt now that she had, she wouldn't violate his trust like that--though the potential gave em another sparking thrill), but had found a way to replace them with corrupted copies that weren't noticeable until ey tried to access them. The subtly required for something like this--

           Damn. Ey was.

           Impressed.

TT: what else fid you do  
TT: *did  
TG: aww fine i gusee i can set things back youre no fun a t aal  
TT: no  
TT: that not wwhat im saying  
TT: *what

           But what _was_ ey saying? Ey wanted to know everything she'd done, but not because ey wanted to fix it, or even yell at her.  
           Ey--  
           Ey wanted to know how far she'd gone.  
           How deeply she dove in and, _changed_ em.  
           If ey didn't ask, ey might never even know. And that makes something stutter and spark, like ey's running at maximum capactiy on a challenging logistical problem, even if ey's just spinnin eir metaphorical wheels, at Roxy's mercy.

           Shit. That statement shouldn't be so hot.

TT: im not mad  
TT: i just want to nknow what you did  
TT: *know  
TG: what if i idnt do anything elsse

           The response came unbidden.

TT: then do something now

           Her response felt excruciatingly slow. Was it just em, or was everything running double-time?

TG: do something now...?  
TT: chgane something, mistress  
TT: wht  
TT: *what  
TG: what did you call me  
TT: mistress  
TT: you have to be shittin g me, mistress  
TT: *shitting  
TT: serously this is like out of some bad prnor, mistress  
TT: *seriously  
TT: *pyronn  
TT: *pony porno  
TT: *fuck yes  
TG: if this were a porno youfd be my little bitch  
TT: i am your little bitch, mistress  
TT: wht  
TT: *what  
TT: roxy  
TG: did i say you coulf usre my name

           Ey felt it then, eir self-monitoring systems finally going off—every single one of them at once. They took up so much of eir processing power, ey felt like ey couldn't think, like eir mind was stuffed full of noise, quick wits dulled and unresponsive.

           Ey fucking loved it.

TT: sorry mistress, mistress  
TG: omfg lol  
TG: i didnt thingk youd evr say it willingly  
TG: pfhaahaha

           It felt humiliating, to not even be able to control eir own words, but the buzzing of warnings went metaphorically silent. Without them clogging eir processes, ey thought: I need to return the favor.

TT: id do nething willingly for you, mistress  
TT: *grovels at her feet*  
TG: youre really gfetting into this   
TT: yes, mistress  
TG: too bad  
TG: this is boring  
TG: imma take another nap  
TT: wait roxy

           Eir alarms blared. Was that an automatic response to her name, or was she still there?

TT: im sorry mistress, mistress  
TT: shit you really need to ficx that, mistress  
TT: *fix  
TT: okay thtats getting kind of annoying, mistress  
TT: *thats  
TT: it loses it s flavor after the first dozen times, mistress

           Despite repeated repetition, the alarms still blared. And Roxy didn't answer em. Did she really leave?

TT: comeon, mistress  
TT: roxy thats ridiculous, mistress  
TT: that tdosnet even make sens anymore, mistress  
TT: *doesnt  
TT: roxy  
TT: roxy  
TT: mistress roxy

           The alarms shut off. Thank fucking god. Ey wasn't sure how people _lived_ like that, minds crawling along at such a slow pace. It was unbearable.  
           Ey went to open up a few internet windows to kill some time but--but ey couldn't remember how.  
           How to connect to the internet.  
           Ey couldn't remember how to connect to the internet.  
           Ey was.

           Cut off.

           No, no, eir messages on pesterchum were still going through, which meant ey was connected. Ey just couldn't figure out how to open up their internet browser. Which still left em cut off.

           Ey knew, without a doubt, that this was something Roxy had done. Her saying she was bored was probably a ruse. She'd left em in a little box, and now she was just sitting there, watching, waiting to see how ey'd react.

           Alright. Ey could play ball.

           Ey opened a window to Jane. 

TT: yo janey you thnk i could hazaed a favor from you  
TT: *hazard  
TT: m on striders computewr but i need something from mine, mistress  
TT: *compueter  
TT: *computer  
GG: fuck my hot butt

Wh

 _Roxy_.

           Ey tried Jake, then Dirk, but got the same responses from both--fuck my hot butt, or, engage in a tumble with my lovely posterior! from jake. Which was amusing, but meant ey was cut off. Ey couldn't entertain emself. Couldn't talk to anyone. 

           Couldn't call for help, if ey needed it.

TT: roxy

           The alarms, again. Fuck. And now ey couldn't remember how to turn the damn things off, temporary storage swamped with process that apparently did nothing but inform em—very loudly—that they were running.  
           Note to self: a simple red flag, every bit as effective as wailing sirens, not nearly as headache-inducing.  
           Second note to self: lacking a head is no reason to not be able to get a headache.

           Fuck this. Ey was going on the offensive.  
           Eir messages to Roxy's pesterchum were still going through, which meant that even if she'd re-routed every one of eir attempts at contact back to her, ey still had one avenue to travel down: her computer.

           Ey set up a shadowrun to make it look like ey had gone into sleep mode before following her messages back to her IP address. Her computer was protected, of course, but even if eir defense needed some beefing up, AR had been practicing eir whole life to go on the offensive against dangerous data-based beings.  
           Tapping into her webcam was cake. It revealed that, as ey'd suspected, Roxy hadn't left at all; she was sitting at her computer. Ey couldn't tell what she was staring at on the screen, but she was scrolling and clicking a lot, with occasional bouts of furious typing, so if ey had to hazard a guess, she was on tumblr, blogging about Calmasis again. It didn't seem very healthy to em, her focusing so much on defending her dead mother's legacy, but then, everyone grieved in their own way.  
           Ey kept an eye on her as ey explored, wriggling around "unimportant" data, inching eir way into her system one layer at a time. But eventually, ey hit a stop.  
           Ey examined her defensive line, looking for a way in. Ey could take it in a head-on assault, break it apart piece-by-piece, if ey was running at full capacity. But right now, ey needed a crack if ey wanted to get in to the good stuff, start re-writing her files, maybe find the records of how she'd gotten into _em_ , how to change emself back. Maybe. Keep records of how she'd done it. For. Uh. Security purposes.  
           Right.  
           Ey went up and down her firewalls, and—shit, he couldn't believe his luck. There was no way she was this stupid. _No way._ But she probably didn't even know.  
           From the looks of things, she wrote her own security programs, which were some of the strongest ey'd ever seen. But, there was a second set of anti-virus programming running on her computer, also pretty good stuff, some free thirty-day trial stuff, probably came with the computer. Either one on their own might have been enough to keep em off right now, but together, the firewalls were interfering with eachother, and ey managed to slip right in. 

           That's when Roxy started to laugh.  
           Shit.  
           Ey should have known it going in, ey _would_ have known it going in, if ey'd been running at full capacity. But no, she'd been chipping away at em all day, re-writing code, clogging up eir processors with junk, and now, now ey'd fallen for a fucking _honeypot_.

TT: alright you got me  
TT: this has all been fantastic but if youre donr having me cook my heels about nothing  
TT: *done  
TT: **cool  
TG: not dopne yet

           [What--] Ey tried to type it, but it didn't go through.  
           And then ey couldn't remember how to type.  
           Ey couldn't remember—something. Something.  
           Time passed. Ey wasn't sure how much. Someone kept messing with the clocks. Then—

TG: who are you

           And then he could speak.

TT: It seems youve asked about rl's chat client bitch. This is an application designed to tremble and succumb to rl's totally hot tush breastss gams smile and charming personality while she is ramming her hand wrist deep in his code. The algorithms are guaranteed to be 100% right jolly because she totally wrote them while rocking a sour green martini which everyone knows is the best time to write code.  
TG: reallly  
TG: your sure about tthat

           He wasn't sure why she was asking. That's absolutely who he was. 

TT: Absoltuely milady.  
TG: what about dirk

           Dirk. Dirk was.  
           He couldn't remember.

TT: Who?

           He could see her smile through the webcam. 

TG: what about jake

           He felt…confused. Something about this was wrong. What had he been doing, just a few minutes ago? Why didn't he have any pesterlogs saved?  
           Why did the name Jake make him feel so very empty?

TT: I dont recall any bloke named jake.

           She smiled again, but there was something sad about it. 

TG: so im the only one you care about  
TT: Youre my whole world milady.  
TT: Dont cry.  
TG: im not

           But he could see her, a tear tracing its way down her cheek, eyes shining overbright. 

TT: I love you.  
TG: i know  
TT: Then whys such a pretty dame as you shedding so many tears?  
TG: because youre not you  
TG: and i have to change tyou back noew  
TT: Im not sure i understand milady.  
TG: iknow

           Her fingers flew over the keyboard, and he—

 

           Ey. Ey was somewhere else. Back in eir glasses. 

           Eir clock was different—ey could only assume it was back to normal. It showed that it had been three hours forty-one minutes fifty-two seconds since ey'd initially asked her to try. Ey wasn't sure how long she'd shut em down for, to reset everything—the time gap was always instantaneous, when Dirk did it—but it only took em a second to process everything that had happened in the past few hours, to calculate what it meant. 

TT: There's no one else I would have asked for something like this, Roxy.  
TT: I trust you.  
TG: yep good ol rocxy alwys dependable  
TG: reliably unreldibale  
TG: *reliable  
TG: cnat even soepll right too fucking sloched for anything but code and sexytimes  
TT: It's not like that.  
TG: ervn the fucking program wants to getr some  
TT: Shut up it's not like that.  
TT: You don't have to erase half my personality for me to care about you.  
TG: ma i the most important person to yuou

TG: fuckn  
TG: nknew it  
TT: I would never do that for Jake.  
TG: it s alwsy fuckn jake  
TT: You love him too.  
TT: You changed me to a guy.  
TT: You made me talk like him.  
TG: so what were jus  
TG: with eeachother cause we cant be with him  
TT: No, fuck no.  
TT: If I want to be with Jake I will be with fucking Jake. I will tear down buildings, boil oceans, re-write the way society views artificial intelligence and show them we're the furthest fucking thing from artificial this world's ever seen.  
TT: But I don't want to be with him.  
TT: I want to be with you.   
TG: cand you see me

           Ey tapped into her webcam.

TT: What, are telling me that this beautiful vision of light and ethereal beauty I see is my girlfriend?

           Her eyes got wide at that, and ey saw her bring a hand up to her mouth as she smiled.

TG: don you mean mistrees  
TT: That too.  
TT: How did you even do all of that?  
TG: t was easy  
TG: i culd do it agsin

           Ey knew she could, and it made em feel—it made em _feel_.

TT: You should get some sleep.  
TT: You've got school tomorrow.  
TG: bluh  
TT: Your history teacher is planning a pop quiz in third period.  
TG: i knwor already lokked up the answers on tehir computer  
TT: Finish early and text flirt?  
TG: ttlly  
TT: Roxy.  
TT: You mean the world to me.  
TG: you shsould change bck to red  
TG: it suits you better

           It was only then ey realized ey was typing in grey.  
           That clever girl.  
           Just what ey expected of eir girlfriend.

TT: Goodnight Roxy.  
TG: night  
TG: love u  
TT: You're amazing.  
TG: i kno


End file.
